Viscerally disturbing and well-told
- A bit more interiority would be interesting, though perhaps neither culturally appropriate nor an accurate reflection of the author's experience
A wrenching narrative of an Amerasian boy's life in post-1975 Vietnam. Kien Nguyen's mother was a banker with two half-white children when Saigon fell to the Northern communists. The family suffered on several accounts: Generally, as South Vietnamese who were suspected of not supporting the North, and hence were presumed to be allied with the U.S.-backed puppet government; as obvious capitalists; as a mixed-ethnicity family; and because Kien's mother had not married her children's fathers.

The book is an almost unrelentingly depressing and horrifying account of poverty, oppression, and discrimination in post-war Vietnam. Though flat at times (like many war narratives by then-children), it was sufficiently disturbing that I had to take breaks while reading. Ultimately, after many beatings, a rape by his mother's ex-boyfriend, starvation, thwarted escapes, and prison, Kien has a chance to leave Vietnam, but first perpetuates the cycle of violence and oppression.

A good companion piece to Truong Nhu Tang's A Viet Cong Memoir: An Inside Account of the Vietnam War and Its Aftermath and Andrew X. Pham's [b:Catfish and Mandala|4370|Catfish and Mandala A Two-Wheeled Voyage through the Landscape and Memory of Vietnam|Andrew X. Pham|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1165429578s/4370.jpg|8039]: A Two-Wheeled Voyage Through the Landscape and Memory of Vietnam (I'll be re-reading Pham in the next few months, so watch for a review). As it turns out, Nguyen's first novel, The Tapestries, has been sitting in my stack of books to read as well.

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A haunting memoir of a childhood during the Vietnam war. Very painful read. ( )

This is the story of a young man from age 5 until he was airlifted to the United States at age 18. The son of a Vietnamese mother and American father, his early years were spent in a protected and luxurious lifestyle. When South Vietnam fell to the Communists, with his mother, brother and sister his life deteriorated into poverty, discrimination and terror. He later became a dentist in the US. It would be fascinating to find out how his life progressed after that plane ride.

This book is a revelation in its unflinching look at the awful life of an Amerasian boy left behind by his American father after the fall of Saigon. Kien Nguyen is one of two "half-breed" sons his mother bore, and feels the stigma and lives the horror of that awful stigma for the first 17-plus years of his life under the repressive Communist regime that takes power after the American's ignominious pullout from that war-torn country. Shamed, beaten, starved and tortured, his life is a literal hell on earth, but he is ultimately saved by the steadfast love of his grandparents and a mother who gradually matures into a more mature and selfless person from her own ordeal. Nguyen continued doggedly to go to school despite his poverty and the terrible predjudice he encountered, and because of this, he finally managed to obtain emigration papers to the U.S. for himself and his family. I couldn't help but think of another Vietnamese refugee memoir, Quang X. Pham's A Sense of Duty. Although the stories are quite distinctly different, they would make interesting companion pieces to be taught in a course on refugee/emigrant literature. In a word, this book is excellent. ( )

This book, The Unwanted by Kien Nguyen, was a memoir of his struggle to get away from the communists in Vietnam during the Fall of Saigon . I talks about from when he was a young boy, and he was part of a rich family and provided with anything and everything he needed, to when the communists came and changed everything, turning his life in to a story in need of some comic relief . Kien, being the eldest son in his family including his single mother once her good for nothing boyfriend leaves them when she has a meltdown, his younger brother who is too young to really be able to help himself, and his two grandparents who would rather die on the land that they knew than go to America where they would have to start over completely . They go through many obstacles, being allowed to register in a community where the leader once worked for Kien's mother who was once vain and unappreciative, doing anything they could for money to survive, a plan to get Kien smuggled to America that backfires badly, Kien ending up in a concentration camp, and even getting papers that allow him, his mother, his brother, and the new addition, his youngest sister, to fly to America .
I cannot personally connect to this story, but I know someone who can . My great grandmother was put in to a concentration camp when the Japanese invaded Guam during World War II . I can relate to the feeling they must have felt being stuck there . Everyone at some point feels like they're stuck and need to get to a new foundation to grow on . In Kien's place, it was literal .
I personally LOVED this book . There was always something new and exciting that just kept the story line going . There was always something coming up next, always something keeping me at the edge of my seat . And it just made it better knowing that this wasn't made up, it was a real life tragedy for Kien and his family .
I would most definitely reccomend this book to someone else . Anyone who likes books based on historical events, fictional or memoirs, would love this book . It really shows the problems that everyone had to go to, not just Kien's, but everyone's family . And what it is like when a one in a million chance pops up and they are able to go through with it . ( )